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Councillor Jo Lovelock, leader of the council, said: "Finding a suitable site for a new 900-place secondary school which can open by 2021 has been an extremely challenging exercise, not least in a town as tight and developed as Reading.

"The council nevertheless has a statutory duty to meet the demand for school places, which is expected to continue to rise.

"The preferred site at Richfield Avenue stood out among all the options.

"It has the space to comfortably accommodate a six form of entry school with all the supporting facilities a modern school needs such as a sports hall, car parking, external social areas and playing fields.

"It is also large enough to include a sixth form expansion in the future if needed."

If built, the new school would be very close to the Reading Festival site, which is held annually on land to the left of Cow Lane, which borders Richfield Avenue.

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The council's policy committee will be asked to launch a public consultation into the building of the new school at a meeting on Monday, June 11.

This would be the first step towards identifying a provider for the new school and applying for Department for Education (DfE) funding under its new Wave 13 Free Schools programme.

The Government is looking to approve approximately 35 new mainstream primary and secondary schools in total.

It is likely that an outcome on all council funding bids will be known by the end of 2018.

Bulge classes will be created before the school is built

Cllr Ashley Pearce, lead member for education at the council, said: "Following the council’s successful creation of 2,550 new primary school places, we believe Reading now has an extremely strong case for a new secondary school in the town.

"This need was clearly evidenced in the north of the borough on secondary school offer day earlier this year, with Highdown heavily over-subscribed – a position exacerbated by recent uncertainty over Chiltern Edge in Oxfordshire, which I am pleased has now been resolved.

"Early indications are that Reading has been placed in the highest category by the DfE in terms of priority need for new secondary school places, which bodes well for the future bidding process."

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In addition to the new school, existing secondaries need to create seven 'bulge' classes by 2019 to accommodate all the new students.

An additional six bulge classes will be needed in 2020, according to the council's projections.

Cllr Pearce said: "I would also like to acknowledge the vital role existing secondary schools in the borough will have to play in accommodating extra bulge classes required in the short term to help the Council meet the demand.

"They will be closely involved at the consultation stage and I thank them for their co-operation so far and going forward."

Traveller site looking unlikely

The identification of this site as a place for a new school means that existing plans for a dedicated Traveller camp are unlikely to be carried out.

The council launched a public consultation into the proposed caravan site.

Of the 222 responses to the public consultation, 164 were objections and 31 were in support.

The remaining replies either asked for additional information or raised issues.

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Cllr Tony Page said: "Alongside the need for a new secondary school in Reading, the parallel exercise to find a suitable location for a transit site in Reading demonstrates the huge challenges and conflicting demands the council faces in a tight urban area like Reading where space is at a premium.

"Access to the preferred site for a new secondary school would be through the location of the proposed transit site, which means at this stage this proposal cannot be taken forward.

"The next step is for the council to continue to search for suitable sites that could meet this need but also to engage with other local authorities to see if the identified need for permanent pitches can be met elsewhere."